Bird Talk Tag and Card

Just love these little birdies from Tim Holtz' Bird Talk clear stamp set.

My friend, Lynette, let me stamp up some on old book paper when I was at her house awhile ago.

Used her colored pencils to color them. Then they sat on my stamping table for a long time.

I found a partially made tag in my stash and used this birdie on it.

Using a recycled a coffee cup liner/wrapper, I cut my own little branch.

For the sky, I cut a my own cloud template, then sponged with distress broken china.

Here is a light purple card using another one of  Tim Holtz' Bird Talk Birds.

On each side of a white layer, I dry embossed a zig zag design

using Patterns & Stitches, a long narrow embossing folder by Tim Holtz/Sizzix.

Sponged with distress seedless preserves.

Created the same type of branch as in tag, added twine fibers and another Bird Talk birdie.

The sentiment is by Wendy Vecchi, A Form of Art-LCS048.

Thanks for visiting!

Vertical Nature Walk Card

Have I mentioned how much I like using book paper on my cards? I just love the vintage look that book paper gives. This vertical card fits into a #10 business envelope, 4-1/8 x 9-1/2". My turquoise card base is 8-1/2" high and about 7-3/4" wide. I folded this in half lengthwise so my card ends up being about 3-7/8" wide.

Lately I have been using Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue, the permanent method by positioning the layer while the glue is still wet. I see less warping than my old standby glue: 3M Scotch Quick drying glue. I also like to use Scotch permanent double sided tape. If you have adhesive preferences, I'd love to hear about them!

Here is the inside of my card.

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Nature Walk, 

Rebecca Sower EK Success Words from the Heart (Nostalgiques, The Attic Collection), 

a tiny clear stamp set from Prima #544959, 

Penny Black 2945H Friendships

Distress Inks: crushed olive, fossilized amber, ground espresso, wilted violet, mermaid lagoon, rusty hinge, barn door

Tombow markers: green 346, blue 452, orange 925, purple 623

Thanks so much for visiting!

Watercolor Background

A friend asked me about my recent watercolor background so I decided to make a tutorial

I'm using a set of  used 28 watercolor "cakes" that my friend, Lynette gave me.

I think they are made by Simbalion.

I used a brush from my stash.

I wet my brush with water and swish it on the color cake to fill my brush with rich color!

Then I paint the colors in sections.

I'm using a "watercolor textured" paper that was given to me.

I don't know the weight or brand. It is about 4.5" high and 7.5" wide.

You can see from the photos that I just just keep adding colors.

The paper curls. It's ok if the colors run together. Makes things interesting!

Normally I let the paint air dry, but I was in a hurry to finish the card, so I used my heat tool. 

Here is the dried paper photographed in daylight, showing more accurate color.

The previous photos were taken with fluorescent light giving a blue cast.

I used half of my watercolor paper for my card. 

Roughened the edges with a distress tool.

Here is the inside, with a layer of thinner cardstock.

with a Fiskars edge punch.

Materials

Stamps: Hero Arts, Michael Strong, PrintWorks, Tim Holtz

Inks: distress peacock feathers, broken china, squeezed lemonade

Stampin Up orchid opulence, lavender lace

Versafine black onyx 

Fun fur fiber, gemstones, dimensional foam tape

Watercolor Crayon Stamping

Made this quick watercolor crayon card today.

I used what I call "faux watercolor paper".

Lynette gave it to me from her stash. 

It has texture like watercolor paper and I like it!

Using a flat brush, I brushed a layer of water on the entire 4 x 5.25 inch surface. 

Grabbed my old Hero Arts set of Woodland Leaves

and the HA Real Dill stamp.

Spritzed the rubber with water 

then colored with watercolor crayons directly onto the rubber.

Spritzed again and stamped.

I guess the green grasses were too wet, but I'm ok with the results.

I didn't have a nice purple color in the crayons

so I used distress seedless preserves

stamping off to soften the intensity of color.

My wc crayons are a set of 12 made by Staedtler.

I suppose I could have tried making my own purple with red and blue?

Some blue got smeared on the edge of the paper.

That inspired me to make a blue border by 

wetting the blue crayon with water and dragged it around the sides.

I then scribbled some yellow wc crayon on the craft sheet, 

added water and brushed the yellow border as shown.

Stamped the sentiment (unknown manufacturer) with Versafine Black Onyx ink.

Yay RAKs

Received these special treats from some very dear stamping friends.

Created by Jane Giggy.

 Created by Jane Giggy.

Created by Tonya Davidson

Created by Mona Sanderson

Created by Hetty Sanders